Baroque Notes: Flowers and Duets

Next, as soon as Handel's opera premiered in London, Telemanns performed it in Hamburg.Nor did Handel forget to repay his boyhood companion.Before Telemann's table music was published, Handel pre-ordered a copy.Afterwards, he quickly borrowed Telemann's table music in his opera Belshazzar.In contrast, Bach bought a copy of Telemann's table music much later, and of course borrowed it. (Cited from Richard Petzoldt, GeorgPhilippTelemann (biography), 1974)

Handel's adaptation technique is quite different from Bach's.When Bach faced a concerto by Vivaldi, he kept the original composition intact, carefully adding harmonic thickness and counterpoint vibrancy bar by bar.This is not the case with Handel, who either takes a few bars here, or a few lines of continuo in another, and even mixes them from one composer to another; even when Handel uses longer quotations At the same time, he will also give it a fresh purpose and shape, and transform it into a new creation.We might say that when Vivaldi presents an egg to Bach, Bach turns it into an Easter egg; Handel weaves fibers into an intricate tapestry. (Cited from ET Harris, George Frideric Handel: A Life with Friends, Making and collecting 1738-1750)

Samson

"It's embarrassing to say that although Handel and I are superficially diametrically opposed, in the end we are the same. When we first met in the early years, our lives were full of similar problems: the law or the law Music, bread, or passion. In later years, when we have gone through more or less intertwined or separated life trajectories, we are troubled by similar problems again, and this time we face each other across the sea in letters."

“The problem this time is not so much a decline in health as loneliness. Artists are inherently lonely, even antisocial,” Telemann said. “Does Antonio agree with this?”

Vivaldi nodded. "Sometimes, instead of using our sensitive hearts to weave music, we also use our music to protect ourselves."

"Music gives us hope, love and peace." Telemann continued, "It has been healing people's hearts for so many centuries. However, sometimes, the power of music is still limited. Please don't dislike me Long-winded, but I'm afraid I'm about to repeat the old story, telling how Handel and I were obsessed with flowers and gardening in our later years, and shared our only consolation on thin letter paper, and comforted each other."

"Philippe, you needn't worry," said Vivaldi. "If a composer loves music all his life, and only music, how shallow he must be! I know your love of flowers," he said, looking around. , "Sebastian and I came to the door of your former residence this morning and saw a few clusters of begonias and tulips, not to mention the great changes that have taken place in this museum since you took over: you have added so many indoor flower arrangements. Their sweet scents light up the soul and fill their music."

"Antonio," Telemann said, "your words are always so sweet. However, the reason why I became obsessed with flowers is a bit unspeakable... I still vaguely remember a morning centuries ago, when human beings I am sixty years old, sitting alone in this house, in the same place. At that time, this room had not yet been built, it was just a part of the low wall in the courtyard of the house..."

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In 1750, Hamburg, Germany.

Georg Philipp Telemann is 69 years old.His eyesight is no longer very bright, and his legs and feet are even worse year after year.Arched, leaning against the low wall, he sat on the stool silently looking at his yard.A yellowed begonia, with remnants of flowers hanging on the branches and leaves, like tears.His house is so deserted, and his children have grown up and have their own lives.No, even if they didn't have such a busy personal life, they wouldn't want to come back and see their poor lonely father, because the family fell apart 14 years ago.

14 years ago!It has been 14 years... Telemann meditated silently, but felt the pain as if it happened yesterday.He didn't know why God didn't want to give him the chance to have a happy family: his first wife died shortly after the birth of their first child; his second wife, Maria, married Rui // Dian//Army//official affair, addicted to gambling//gambling, left behind a huge debt of 3000 thalers after elopement, Telemann alone could not eat or drink for a year and could not repay it with all his salary...the two separated in 1736 ...

He looked at the begonia, its tiny branches trembling in the wind.He doesn't know when he started to become "insatiable for tulips, hyacinths, buttercups, and begonias."Friends persuaded him not to grow too many of these flowers, because although these flowers are beautiful, they are unlucky: begonias represent frustration and longing, buttercups represent escape, hyacinths represent sadness, and tulips represent desperate love.The elder Telemann, however, never said anything.Those flowers are so delicate, it seems that they can only be watered with tears.After Maria and the children left, he gradually learned to talk to these plants.In his view, any trembling of these flowers seems to be listening and responding to this old and helpless man.

In addition to talking to plants, Telemann has also learned patience and self-deprecation over the years.

In his Kollektaneenzur Literatur (Literary Summaries and Commentaries), Mr. Lessing singles out a Hamburg composer's family scandal; //Army//Official Love" was released, and then because of "the news leaked, the city hall stopped the performance of the opera".Telemann said nothing.

The debt of 3000 talers left by Maria after leaving, although friends have offered to help, has only made up a small part.Still Telemann said nothing.

He just felt that all of this was a trick of good fortune, and there was no other way but to accept it.Just like in his early years in Leipzig, "by coincidence" his composition for Psalm [-] was chosen by the town hall... hahaha!Now, poor old Telemann is wearing a cuckold, whose fame is widely spread in Germany//country, even bigger than the reputation of his music, and the sky-high debt adds to all this, really Couldn't be better! In a letter to his Riga friend Hollander, Telemann wrote a limerick, self-deprecating, like a shameless beggar with an empty bowl:

"The burden of my life has become so light,

Because my wife took the profligacy with her.

Will I be able to repay the debt as time goes by?

God's gift to help my house,

The people of Hamburg lend a helping hand,

So zealous, so charitable,

Where can one find such a generous friend?

There is no greater consolation than this!

—Your constant servant, Telemann"

No, he doesn't resent Maria at all... He often asks himself whether he is too career-oriented, whether he does not have enough interest in life, whether he does not spend enough time at home, whether he is not mature enough Attraction... What exactly was it that made Maria leave him, and made her no longer love him... But, she had already left this home.14 years away. After 14 years, Telemann still couldn't bear to hurt her so much. In all his autobiographies, whenever he mentioned Maria, he said that she was an "excellent and good wife"...

For so many years, he looked at the silently growing flowers in front of him, trying to use gardening to alleviate the difficulties in life.However, while Maria's departure and the burden of huge debts linger, new hardships and sorrows jump into the old man's life from time to time.His longtime friend Johann Sebastian Bach died without warning in Leipzig last month. [Sleep, forgetting will never touch your name; the example you set, let every successor crown you, and fuse with your reputation when you were alive] When Telemann wrote these ten memorials for his deceased friends When writing the quatrain, all the past time came back to his mind, making it hard for him to believe that time passed so quickly.He vaguely felt that there was not much time left for his friends in this world, and there was not much time left for him. The twilight of an era was slowly emerging from the skyline...

Families are broken, friends are gone.Almost a decade ago, he wasn't even that enthusiastic about composing anymore.Most of the day he just looked at his flowers and felt like there was nothing else in the world.Yes, many times, he feels a sense of loneliness that he has never felt before. This feeling is like the midnight tide, secretly surging from all directions, surrounding him who is standing on the reef... At this moment, what can make him feel There are so few things pulled back to the real world